8 best office Android apps

Office Android apps have really been coming into their own over the last year. We’ve seen more integration with cloud storage, more features, more stability, and better performance. The landscape is growing and more people are using their mobile devices and tablets to do actual work. If you’re going to do work, you should do it with the best apps available right? Here are the best office Android apps.

It's desktop on mobile!

Allows you to use your desktop/laptop office software instead of using software on your mobile device. This can result in more features and more storage since it'll be saving to your laptop.

It's cross platform!

It's easy to use on supported devices and it's free.

CONS

May be buggy, glitchy, or laggy depending on your device and your network speed.

Not ideal for offline use.

8.0

Say what? Yes, this is actually a pretty decent option for an office suite. Why, you might ask? The reason is because if you have a nice office suite on your computer, you can use Chrome Remote Desktop to access it and simply write from there. You have the storage of your computer and all the hardcore features that only a desktop office suite can offer. If you’re at home and you want to keep using your desktop version of Microsoft Word, you still can!

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It's documents...to go!

Huge list of features including phone/tablet support, MS Office files support, and more.

Cloud storage support.

Can also view PDFs so you can kill two birds with one stone if you're also looking for a PDF reader.

Word, spreadsheet, and presentation support.

CONS

This comes preloaded on a lot of devices and people hate bloatware.

Advertisements may bother some people.

Various bugs are reported on various devices.

7.0

Docs To Go was among the first to embrace the freemium purchase model and that means you can get this application for free and if you want more features, you can pay for them. It’s been around for a long time and it’s trusted by millions.

Google's official office suite on Android.

It's rock solid stable. There are still bugs but Google has done well to fix them or keep them only to certain devices.

Easy to use interface.

Support for MS Office files.

You can use it to store other stuff too like photos, various other files, and stuff other than documents.

It's Google-supported.

CONS

You'll need a total of four applications to make this suite work. That's about two to three more than everyone else.

Syncing between the web and mobile interfaces can take longer than expected for some.

You have to use Google Drive storage. No Dropbox, OneDrive, etc support.

8.0

Google Drive has kind of morphed from a cloud storage app with office features to an office suite with cloud features. The change isn’t bad but you will need to download the other Google office apps, including Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides in order to actually create, edit, and otherwise tinker with various documents. It’s free and it’s popular plus you get 15GB of free cloud storage!

Has had bugs reported of the app deleting documents that are being edited when the app crashes.

8.0

The venerable Kingsoft Office makes its return to the list as the original free office app. It’s still free which is great and it’s still a good app which is also great. This is the default option for a lot of people who want the office experience but don’t want to fork out any money. It’s solid, updated frequently, and well developed. A good option overall.

The office app that the other office apps want to be like.

PROS

CONS

Microsoft has been slow on updating the app and fixing bugs.

This isn't a big con, but you can only use OneDrive and you'll need a Microsoft account. Before you complain, keep in mind that Google Docs requires a Gmail account and you can only save to Google Drive.

8.0

Earlier this year, Microsoft Office went totally free on Android. Then they increased their OneDrive storage to 15GB free for all users. That means in terms of functionality and free storage, Microsoft Office on Android pretty much stands up to par against everyone. If you love MS Office, it’s on Android but you may have to wait a bit longer for tablet support. It’s in beta testing now and will reportedly be out later this year.

A feature packed and solid option.

Has a lot of more unique features, like the ability to convert PDF to Word.

Large file compatibility including MS Office.

Cloud storage integration.

Some of the paid features include saving files to PDF format and locking files with a password.

PDF camera scanner is a nice touch.

CONS

If this is preloaded on your phone, you can't move it to an external SD card. Also, preloaded means bloatware.

Some of the features don't work for some people, such as the PDF-to-Word feature.

There are a lot of people who can't justify spending $15 on this app and opt to stay with the free version. Just something to take into consideration.

7.0

OfficeSuite 7 is the first office app on this list that will cost you quite a bit of money to get. In its defense it does have a number of unique features and it’s a fairly solid application. That said, many people are going to dislike that $15 price tag. Thankfully, there is a free version that you can try out to see if you like it.

Comes preinstalled on most smartphones

Desktop client means you have cross platform support. You also get more free storage if you do this.

Camera mode lets you scan documents.

MS Office file support.

Chromecast support to put your documents on TV.

CONS

Bloatware which means it's bloatware.

Storage is messy. Documents get duplicated fairly often or deleted entirely.

Still buggy and crashy sometimes for some people.

7.0

Polaris Office was one of the first office suites to be preloaded onto phones and that’s a tradition that continues to this day. It’s a solid option with the basic features if you stick with the free version. There are some unique features and it’s a solid option overall.

Not amazing but not bad. It's good.

3D document viewing for all 9 people who would like that. Still cool though!

Cloud storage support.

Wireless printing support.

CONS

It's been a long time since the developer has updated this app.

That means the bugs and issues that people are having haven't been fixed yet.

Really light feature set for a $10 app.

7.0

Smart Office 2 is another somewhat expensive option but it’s still fairly solid. It’s a little bare in terms of features but there are some fun features for those who may need them. It’s not amazing but it’s not bad. It’s good.

Wrap up

If you’re wondering what happened to Quickoffice, it’s been announced that Google is retiring the app and putting all of their focus into Google Drive. If it’s not gone already it will be shortly. If there are any really good office apps that we missed, let us know in the comments below!

I’m surprised they’re not given a 9 or 8.5
Would be more appropriate cause it works set it higher than the rest.

jay

polaris office?

Hihi

I agree, Polaris Office is missing. I personally think it’s the best

Biavela

I also agree Polaris is one of the best.

JosephHindy

I would’ve included Polaris Office except it’s included as bloatware on some devices, which lowers its value significantly. It’s okay (not terrible or anything) but I had only so many to pick and I didn’t really want to add one that people are forced to have (like I didn’t include lookout on my top antivirus apps for the same reason).

nasri

you are wrong, only polaris viewer is a bloatware but if you want a full feature of polaris office, you need to download it. For samsung, you can download it for free.

http://gplus.to/jcblachere Jean Christophe Blachere

@nasri would you have a link for Polaris Office apk and would it work on a Nexus 4 running 4.4 in ART runtime?

Tebogo Tbzmike Dr-Insane

That is true

Dude

So glad I picked OfficeSuite Pro in the 10 billionth app download deal which had it sold for 10 cents! Can’t wait for Google Play to reach its next milestone!

dsyarn72

CloudOn is by far the best!

Kitty

Mobile office apps need much longer development cycle and hence the risik for independent developers is too high to afford.

Dario 753 a.C. .ex androidiani

i’ve been using office suite for a long time, but when google realesed free quickoffice i installed quickoffice and removed office suite..
and using quickoffice with my google account now it was upgraded to 25Gb

Jkc

King office really nice and easy

jlschulz098

Polaris office. Works on everything Ive tried and easy. Not to mention free with my note 10.1

APai

quickoffice, polaris, kingsoft are all excellent free options

Bern

In my experience SoftMaker Office (TextMaker etc) is the best full featured suite – but costs money

Brenden Keene

Kingsoft Office was annoying to use and crashed on my Nexus 10 a bizillion times… til I finally had to cough up $15 for OfficeSuite Pro. OfficeSuite is worth the money if you are in the application a lot otherwise I would do Google’s QuickOffice for free.

Q.

I primarily use Google Drive & Keep and KingSoft Office. They are all great but doing office work on a mobile device is nothing compared to doing office work on a PC.

http://www.facebook.com/ignacio.martin.73307 Ignacio Martín

It’s a bit weird that you can only use Quickoffice to edit Microsoft document formats and not Google Docs formats.

Mitch

Google inherited Quickoffice when they bought Motorola. I have used Quickoffice for around 5 years on phones and tabs.

Tran Nguyen

I hope that someone can tell me which office apps able to play pps, ppt or pptx with SOUND ON. I couldn’t find the right one.

Tamás Nehr

Kingsoft Office’s screenshots is wrong. It is the same as Google Drive.

Albin

People who need office software to interface with their jobs or their schoolwork should figure out what they need and whether they can get it for their phones, or not. “Or not” is still a real possibility. I have no idea how many folks actually use this stuff. I did temporarily install the new Google Quickoffice to get some extra Google Drive storage – I think the offer is still on. Otherwise, meh. I’d rather wait to do it on a laptop.

tonyp17

Softmaker has by far the best functionality

http://gplus.to/jcblachere Jean Christophe Blachere

What about Polaris Office ? That for me has anyways been the best because that was the app that most closely emulated the native MS formats.
Creating and editing documents on a phone is still a long way out IMO. Probably an easier experience on a tablet as the form factor is better (bigger) but in most cases, I just want to look up a document on my Dropbox and I can’t if the formats are horrible.
Polaris Office 3 used to work perfectly on my Nexus 4 running stock Android 4.3 but now that I updated to 4.4 both the Polaris Office 3 and 4 crash.
What to do?

shabbar

i want to get office that saves files in my device and no need of internet conectivity

Sai

Hi, You can create Offline documents in Zoho Writer app and save it locally in your device in their proprietary format.

Stef

Thank you for cutting your hair :) haha

Sai

Zoho writer is also seemed to be good among document creating app recently enrolled in Google Playstore with rich text features. It also supports editing documents from cloud services like Dropbox,Google drive and Zoho docs.

Karl Wooldridge

Kingsoft Office is the only one I’ve tried (I’ve also tried QuickOffice, SmartOffice, OliveOffice and Polaris Office) that is compatible with embedded references (using either the proprietary Endnote or the open source Zotero). While neither of these packages is available for Android – so you can’t actually insert new references – at least it doesn’t mess with the formatting/metadata of existing embedded references so the next time you edit your document in Word after saving using the Android package the references have been preserved. This cannot be said of the others. The commenting and change tracking is also compatible with the MS product.

Nick

Among those in the list I’ve already tried all, except for Office Mobile and Smart Office. I really enjoy OfficeSuite 7 because it offers a very elegante interface, also very powerful office app.

I really enjoy Google Drive, I use it a lot. But as an Office app it’s still far from good IMO, there’s very few customization options, and the editor is not that good.

Kingsoft would be my third place, it’s one of the best free solutions out there, you get many things and it does what you need. But I like OfficeSuite 7 better and for second I’d take AdrOpen Office, which is a port of Open Office for PC to android, as a fellow fanfiction writer on Linux I use .odt file a lot, and this is the best option to use it on Android ^^.

My top 3 list would be:
1 – OfficeSuite 7
2 – AndOppen Office (Missing in this list, however, I’m not sure if it was released when this was published)
3 – Kingsoft Office

Brett Jones

In terms of spreadsheets, I found Kingsoft best out of MS Office Mobile and Quickoffice.

Bad – MS Office Mobile cannot rename sheets nor create new ones (on Android). In my opinion its biggest failing.
Good – Kingsoft Office is free (but if you read the terms, Google start charging at “10 million hits” which seemed like very heavy usage).
Good – Kingsoft can read from Android storage and various cloud services.
Bad – MS Office Mobile only reads from SkyDrive directly, to open docs on Android storage you must navigate through a file manager.

Abu Saleh Muhammad Jubair

Try WorkDaddy. Its the best office management Android application. Small and simple app but full of useful features. WorkDaddy is fully compatible with NFC/RFID smart cards. Can keep attendance can calculate working hour. Excellent event planner. Even can mail the attendance record to the user or the administrator. Its available on Google Play try it now.

Goldie

Would like to create a pps presentations on my Android .Which app do you recomend?
Prefer one that matches Microsoft

Will S.

I use to love Kingsoft Office, but ever since it became WPS, I’ve moved entirely to Google Drive. The thing I liked most about Kingsoft is that its UI looked like a desktop office suite, compared to all other mobile office suites that had a mobile friendly UI, but now it has a striking resemblance to all other mobile suites…

MeanDroid

Good article, but you forget to mention “Quickoffice”?!

filaos

The picture linking to this article in the main page shows iPads running MS Office !
WTF ??

preciousbwallace

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Gorge

kingsoft Office(WPS Office) is the best office application. it deserve get maximum rating — http://www.apkwar.com

Orwell13

I was searching long time for a good Android office suite and tried out several ones, until I finally found SoftMaker’s apps TextMaker Mobile, PlanMaker Mobile, and Presentations Mobile. IMHO these apps are the best, because all tools boast an easy-to-use interface, export to PDF, access to several file hosting services, and include by far the largest scope of features, comparable to my PC. Plus, very important: all kinds of documents created by MS Office import generally without a glitch.

ben1981

There is no app like Android Office by Sibling, Android Office offers more features than any other app, works great on my phone and on my tab, I’m surprised that you didn’t cover this app too, all the apps that you mentioned here doesn’t get even close to what Android Office offers, check it !!!

yo

Microsoft office it’s the most bad android software ever. It’s buggy, slow, and an ultra incompatible with other formats. 8 points it’s really an incomprehensible score. In most other websites it’s have a lower qualifications. Please edit and I believe in you. Thanks.

office bot

how come thinkfree office didnt feature in here

Matt Rawson

I do miss QuickOffice. It was really easy, simple, fast, and really got the job done with no hassle at all. Wish it would come back.

Goos

Kingsoft (WPS) is the best Office app for Android.
You can really edit all office documents without missing MS Office.

Laurence Wells

One more con to Office Mobile–it only works on phones, not tablets! (Why?)

Ian

I found Kingsoft’s formatting of pages created by MS Word was inadequate, and apostrophes were missing from documents.

I liked Polaris Office 5. It worked on both my tablets but when a system update came through for my ASUS T700, that killed Polaris Office 5.
I downloaded and installed the new Polaris Office but it doesn’t save to the internal drive, just to Inbox. So I will HAVE to use one of my Cloud stores.
Because of how I use my mobile office, I prefer the In-Tablet feature which still works in my old ASUS T300, so I’ll go with that this weekend.
Reading through the reviews here, I suddenly see that Androids are not meant to carry a mountain of data – just shunt it to the Cloud and either share or print elsewhere. (like from my PC, for instance… times are changing) *sigh*